Powell on CNN: Iraqi people want and deserve democracy

The United States and its coalition allies, despite the current flare-up in insurgency, will not be deterred in its mission of helping the Iraqi people achieve the peace and democracy they deserve, Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an April 9 CNN interview.

"I think the Iraqi people want democracy, deserve democracy, and we're going to help them achieve that goal of having a democracy," Powell said. "And when you ask the Iraqi people what do they want, they want the same things that our own citizens here want. They want to live in peace. They want jobs. They want health care. And they want a better future. And we're determined to help them achieve those goals," he said.

Powell said, "So we can't let these individuals determine the future of a country or determine the future of 25 million people. And so we will go after them, and we are going to encourage Iraqi citizens to help us identify who these people are, get them under control, bring them to justice and destroy them."

We have got to defeat these Sunni remnants in the Sunni Triangle left over from Saddam Hussein's regime, and we've got to deal with the forces of Muqtada Al-Sadr in the south" Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an interview ABC's Peter Jennings.